The boy & The bird
by TheRedL4dy
Summary: The gripping tale from the same world as Search Light and Memories in the shadow. The next adviser to the crown of the Livni kingdom goes looking for help and uncovers the secret of a lifetime in a large brightly colored bird in the wilderness can this bird be his savior or his own destruction as he face the horrors of the court


The Lady in Red

The Boy & the Bird

By The Lady in Red

Prologue:

The assassin's home has always been hidden deep in the forests of the Livni kingdom. It was a beautiful manor made of stone, it had an ivy covering and dingy windows but it still had a certain… wickedness about it. The house wasn't something most people willing came to or even dared approach. The common opinion was that the only reason the forest village tolerated it was that they bought a lot of the supplies from them but that isn't true. The village in fact loved the assassin's guild they brought more and more royal patrons to their small village it helped them flourish.

Many royals came to seek the assistance of the infamous assassins. They were well known for their secrecy. A highly attractive quality for an assassin as you can imagine, especially if the plot were not to go through successfully. If revealed this would have result in a lot of rolling heads and traitorous accusations. In fact half of the current court owes their positions to the assassins. Assassination was a regular occurrence in the Livni kingdom. The infighting between the kingdom's royals was notorious in other kingdoms. It was almost pointless though since all positions are handed down through families and generations, this ridged infrastructure is probably causing the rebellion. This tangent is a topic for another time well get back to that later. Now back to the assassin thing…

Many years ago a baby girl appeared on the door step of the home. The assassins took quite a liking to the little girl; she had ice cold gray eyes and messy black hair. This often got her mistaken for a boy so they gave her the name Shashin (meaning ice demon in a native tongue). Since a lot of the village children were terrified of the young girl the assassins had no choice but to become her playmates as well as teachers. She learned a lot of strange things in the house in the woods, she learned a variety of martial arts (becoming quiet lethal), and they taught her how to use a variety of weapons, poisons, and also bare-handed killing techniques. They often played hide and seek as well though it is hard to find an assassin so it often took many hours. The girl began to grow up unknowingly becoming a most lethal and world-class assassin.

As she grew older, her boyish traits still remained in her attitude but her feminine beauty was also unmatched. Her hair grew down all the way to her lower back (because no one dared to cut it after the last time which is again another tangent) and her gray eyes remained crystal clear surround by thick ink black lashes. The girl, now a young woman, was always sheltered as a child, they treated her as a very darling little sister and fear that she would be harmed no matter how strong she became. Due to this she was a little odd and didn't know much about the outside world, she only knew things from when the assassins would bring her with them on missions and from books. This is where the main story will start from…

Chapter 1:

"Shashin, Shashin where are you? Viia wants to teach you about wild plants," said Tar, the next head of the assassin house. He was very tall with dark blue eyes and black hair, at the beginning of our story he is sixteen.

"Really? Awesome lessons out today woohoo!" Shashin literally ran out of the house.

There sitting on a stump was a beautiful woman with fiery red hair and emerald green eyes (of course this was Viia). She wore a corseted black dress and had a violin that she was playing with a short sword. She was singing an eerie tune that went exactly like this:

_A demon song, flowing through the ears_

_A demon tune, of blood and death_

_The 100 year war won't end in a breath_

_Unless the song gets sung_

_The dragon ravaged land of sorrow_

_Only a great fire of tomorrow_

_When the mountain sleeps, the hero returns_

_Bringing with him a sword,_

_Bloodied by the spirit war_

_Singing the demon's song_

"Oh Shashin, you finally came! Are you excited about today's lesson?" Viia replied in a sing-song voice. Viia has been like a protector and a mother to Shashin. As a child only Viia's lullabies could get her to fall asleep. Though Viia had grown old she was still as fierce, deadly, and beautiful as she was many years ago. "Today lesson is about plants. You already know the standard poisons and poisonous herbs but today lesson will be about edible plants."

"When will I need to know about edible plants why can't I just eat rations? We always bring them on missions."

"Well what is you get lost in the woods or run out of rations where will you be then?"

"Okay I see your point so what plants can I eat?"

This conversation went on for a little while but I won't bother you with the details. Instead I should tell you a little bit about the landscape of Livni. It was mainly a lot of forest land full of plateaus and fields. It had an abundance of wildlife mainly consisting of wolves, foxes, deer, pheasants, rabbits, and other woodland creatures. It was a landlocked kingdom with three major cities; the capital Karrva (after the first king), and the twin cities Hirran and Nilla (named after the infamous warrior siblings). They did bustling trade with the neighboring countries and became a strong world power due to its fierce land army. They had a strong proud history and a ridiculously elaborate religious system based on natural totems and spirits. The people were highly superstitious and very devoted to the spirits, believing that they could affect life from the otherworld. And now we pick back up on the story…

"Mother, sorry to interrupt the lesson but the Master has called a grand meeting…" Tar said rather hurriedly.

"No problem let's see what your father wants now, aye?"

"Aye" His tone was slightly worried, highly suspect for Tar's character.

They went to the main room of the assassin house, in fact there weren't that may rooms to choose from There was the main room that was used as a living room and then is switched to a dining room at meal times. The kitchen which you didn't want to go into unless you needed something specifically or else you will face the ire of the chef. Then there were many bedrooms that became eventually became a maze of twisted hallways and doors. Each decorated and changed to suit the owner's needs. Finally, there was a large basement were they kept their tools of the trade, and also a rather large wine cellar.

Sitting in the mighty room was a couple of large oak tables with an odd collection of miss matched chairs. There were two empty chairs when the trio entered the seat directly to the right and left of the Master (his name was Rivvet and as you guessed he is married to the beautiful Viia and he's Tar's father). Those two chairs were reserved for Viia and Tar, of course, Viia sat to the left and Tar to the right (the honored place of the next in line). Shashin was not allowed to attend the meetings of the clans as she belonged to none, she was asked to leave the great hall. The rest of the assassins were organized by rank of clan and then rank in the respective clans. Wolf the master house (Tar's clan, specialized in stealth and retrieval) then the cat clan who's specialty was the use of weapons (swords, daggers, bows and the like). The clan in third highest rank were the Fish clan who mastered the use of gunpowder (guns and explosives), after them came the Rabbit Clan who used the techniques of Info gathering and seduction. The Dog clan was fifth they were quiet good at hand to hand combat. Then came the mouse clan who could mimic anyone so well that your own mother wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The Snake clan was last in rank and held dominion over all forms of poison. All together there were seven clans who lived in relative harmony.*But enough of my annoying description and back to the plot…

The heavy oak doors slammed shut as Shashin knew they would. She was never allowed into those meetings because she had yet to choose a clan. That didn't bother her though as there was a small notch in the wall carving on the left side of the door. She simply pulled the pearl back and there was a small eye hole.

"My brothers and sisters I welcome you to the meeting of the Seven Clans! It is a welcoming and rare sight to see us all together. It is a pressing matter for which I have called you here today." Rivvet's booming bass voice resounded throughout the hall. "The King has determined that a personal contract is necessary for the good of the kingdom and therefore has decided to pay us and extremely large amount of treasure in exchange for our loyalty." The whole room burst out in laughter even the small eavesdropper outside the room let out a giggle. "As you all know we will except this most gracious of gifts," A sinister smile spread across Rivvet's face, "But foolish kings who try to but our loyalty of course will not earn it. We will continue to accept the contracts that flow in and I expect an increase in the coming months. The King has grown fat, old, and foolish. The rest of his disgusting bureaucracy is licking their chops, so all I say is 'Death is an Art, Death is the Grimm's job, and Grimm's artisans we are'"

*see page for full genealogy chart and list of assassin and clan organization

A great roar erupted; the assassin's clanged their weapons on the table, clanked their goblets, and rattled whatever they had on hand when they heard the illustrious creed of the Assassin. Vyri, Viia's younger sister of the dog clan, at that moment rolled in a large barrel of wine. Rivvet walked over to it raised his glass and said, "So as a start tonight as a 'good faith' gesture he has sent us a few barrels of wine at the hands of '_that lord'_. Who will drink with me?" Another round of laughter erupted and the adults all raised their goblets made of glass. Rivvet pulled from his belt a silver dagger and he stabbed it into the cork and in one quick motion pulled it from the bottom.

As soon as the cork was removed everything went to hell! A plume of purple-blue smoke exploded out of the barrel quickly engulfing the room. The Snake clan could tell it was a very powerful potion but were powerless to prevent it. People screamed and mother's tried to protect their children from the gaseous onslaught. People ran for the doors but before they could even come close to them the potion took its effect. Everything froze as if time had stopped. It was a potent poison that affected the smallest child and the largest adult. The great assassin's bodies turned to statues. They became cold as ice and hard as stone. Unmovable and out of time they would remain until the source of the poison could be found and an antidote procured.

What has become of the girl you wonder? Well as you know she saw everything from her notch in the wall. She saw the purple smoke swath her family. She saw the people she loved freeze and scream. The smoke itself curled out of the little hole in the mural. She coughed and gagged as the smoke got into her body. Luckily since she quickly slammed the small pearl on its hinges there was not enough of the gaseous potion inside her to halt her time. Though it was enough for her to become dizzy and then pass out.

When she awoke, she awoke in a furious vengeance in the middle of the hallway. She ripped open the doors of the great hall and to her horror discovered her family frozen. The purplish-smog had vanished leaving only a stale atmosphere. She fell in the middle of the floor crying; she swore to vengeance, she swore that she would free them, her cries turned into an eerie howl.

Chapter 2:

Ten years have passed and the house of the assassins has fallen into the shadows. The Ivy covers the front and helps to hide it in the forest. The wrought iron gate had fallen off of its hinges and bent. The older members of the town still remembered the majesty of assassins and passed the stories and legends down to their children. The house flew into disrepute among the court. After the old king was brutally removed from the throne, his son took up the crown. He ordered that the assassins never be mentioned within his court out of respect for his late father. That didn't mean of course that the assassination stopped, oh no the aristocrats just had to dirty their own hands instead. The new king, Torrin, was in fact was one of the worst. He had killed in fact four separate grand advisers. The family of Redrock has always been the advisers to the king as is tradition in Livni. They have experienced quite a hit in recent years losing a grandfather, two uncles and the father of the newest adviser, Rovii Redrock. As you can imagine on his first day he was extremely nervous.

The green robe of state with Livni's emblem on the back hung loosely from the young boys shoulder. He had plain brown hair, plain brown eyes and plain features. In fact, most people couldn't pick him out of a crowd. Personally I never thought a boy like him would be important enough to be included in a legend yet here he is. Generally I assumed he would be another work a day boy in a work a day life maybe meeting a plain girl and having three normal children. I assumed he would eventually die of illness or old age if he was good at his job or maybe of assassination if he pissed someone off, pretty much the usual life of a member of the Livni court.

Instead here he was in the legend of the last assassin. Anywhoo back to the actually story...

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Sorry for leaving it on a cliff hanger I just couldn't help it :). Pleae Review or leave your thoughts...


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